Main | Family List (MO) | Family List (INBio) | Cutting Edge Draft Treatments | Guidelines | Checklist | Citing | Editors The Cutting Edge Volume XVIII, Number 1, January 2011 News and Notes | Leaps and Bounds | Germane Literature | Season's Pick | Annotate your copy Dicliptera pallida Leonard (Acanthaceae) has the lead part in this season's feature, which also includes several other fine actresses from this famous family of early dry-season players, very common among the ornamental set. This star, currently known only from Costa Rican theaters, has been only rarely viewed [just one showing, the original, currently on TROPICOS and on ATTA only two, both scripted by well-known Manual Gesneriaceae producer Ricardo Kriebel (NY)]. However, as is often the case with Acanthaceae this actor can be very popular at the few places she does show, as Manual co-producer Barry Hammel and technical assistant Isabel Pérez (INB) discovered recently along the Río Guararí on the property of Karen (Pronativas) and Rob Arras (OTS, Board of Visitors) just N of Barva, Heredia.  Thanks and a tip-o-the hat to them for setting the stage for this production! These particular scenes are scripted by Hammel, K. Arras & I. Pérez 25854. Additional cast member # 1. Dicliptera trifurca Oerst. is another actor in this season's show, playing in the very same scene (though more in the shadows) as D. pallida. Again, this actor seems to have played only minor parts in recent years, with only one showing in the repretoir of the family at INB, and just six at MO. However, the production manager and author of this family for the Manual, Lucinda McDade (RSA), informs us that the much more popular star of this same ilk in recent times, D. iopus Lindau as well as another minor player, who arrived on the scene even more recently, D. skutchii Leonard are both likely to take second stage to our present diva, as she has a much older history on the stage and is showing the flexibility to encompass the standard roles of these other two just mentioned actors. Scenes scripted by Hammel et al. 25855. Additional cast member # 2. Justicia valerioi Leonard, of much smaller and less flamboyant stature, nevertheless has an interesting and somewhat perplexing role. The differences between this actor and the very similarly endowed J. candelariae (Oerst.) Leonard are slight, with a certain glandularosity in the calyx about the only thing that distinguishes J. valerioi's presence on the stage. We suspect that these two and perhaps others of equally small stature may also soon be found to have had their roles confused. Hammel et al. 25856 serves as script for these scenes. TOP